


Masks

by Willows_Rain



Category: Persona 5
Genre: Akechi thinks too much, Character Study, Gen, Lots of fun brooding, Or Is he?, Potentially insane narrator, Unreliable Narrator
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-18
Updated: 2018-02-18
Packaged: 2019-03-21 00:21:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,188
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13729167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Willows_Rain/pseuds/Willows_Rain
Summary: As Akechi makes his way to kill Akira, he muses over the monster that is their leader. And how truly, he really is doing the team a favor. Even if they wouldn't believe it if he told them.





	Masks

To the unobservant eye, Kurusu Akira was the perfect gentleman. A gentle and warm smile that could melt a heart of ice. A considerate young man who always put the well being of others come before himself. 

The artist's piece being displayed in a museum? He was there to celebrate. 

Isshiki's brat wanted a new piece of equipment for her already grossly overcomplicated hacking system? He was there to support her emotionally in the crowd of Akihabara - or be the packmule. 

The loudmouthed one wanted food? He was there to keep him company, and pay out of his wallet. 

Yet, despite the amount of time Kurusu spent with his team, he was annoyingly capable of deflecting questions about himself. In fact, he was quite masterful at it. He would answer with just enough information to make someone think he had answered the question, but said information would rarely answer the question at all. 

"Sooooo, Akira." Ann leaned over the table at the booth of LeBlanc dramatically, either unaware or uncaring of how her cleavage was showing. Akira, to his credit, didn't allow his gaze to falter downwards. It instead lingered along the top of the rim of his fake glasses as he met her eyes. It was too bad the same couldn't be said for Ryuji, who was, none too subtly ogling the girl beside him, his jaw agape. Books were scattered across the table.

"Hm?" A simple answer, not even a word. 

"You never really talk about where you're from! What's it like there?" Akira leaned back, quiet and clearly lost in thought. His face was impassive, an impressive poker face. 

"Well... it's quiet. It's nothing at all like Tokyo. Ryuji wouldn't last a day there." The right side of his lips curled into a faint smirk, his eyes glancing towards the blonde in question. Thankfully, the idiot had the sense to pick up his jaw and turn his attention towards their leader. 

"Hey! I probably would!-" He paused a moment as Akira's smirk grew. "...Why wouldn't I last again?" Their leader chuckled and pushed his glasses further up the bridge of his nose. 

"...They don't have an arcade." He said simply. 

"WHAT?!" And such was how Akechi found himself temporarily deafened for several seconds. However, it was a masterful move, one made of his knowledge of his so-called friends. Indeed, Ryuji had been so loud that his friends had had to shush him, which had them quickly turned the topic back towards other things. Akira had settled back into the booth seat, content to be listening again, though he would have sworn that he seemed a bit more pleased than he had been but moments before. 

He was an interesting one when he was surrounded by his friends. But perhaps, the real intrigue happened when he was one on one with a friend. Akechi had watched, of course he had watched, this was his enemy after all. One must gather all intel possible on one’s enemies, and it was fascinating. One must keep one’s enemies closer than one’s own friends after all. Although he did not have any friends, but the meaning of the idiom certainly wasn’t lost on him. 

Kurusu... changed. It was subtle, but important. His body language, his words. 

_“C’mon, what do you think? I made it with loooove~!” The blonde shoved his leader away with a scoff, quickly looking around to make sure no one had noticed._  
“Monjayaki’s not curry, dude. And if it’s anything like the love you put into that, I think I’ll pass!”  
“Hey!” Even Akira himself was laughing, rather than sounding offended. 

Contrast that with his experience with the artist thief and the changes were clear as day. 

_“This is exquisite!” The blue haired boy exclaimed. Madarame’s student, he had to remind himself. His leader followed his gaze towards the painting._

_“It does have a certain appeal, yes.” Kurusu agreed. His voice was soft, yet respectful. Kitagawa shook his head as though such words were pitifully underwhelming._

_“More than an appeal, my friend! Look at the brushstrokes; which here...” He points towards the top of the painting. ”... show messily, hastily. The colors are dark, which slowly transition towards lighter colors, which each stroke made much more mindfully. It is as though the light source is at the bottom, drawing order towards it, and as the colors draw further away from the light, entropy follows. And the very fact that the orientation of the painting is flipped, depicting a chaos of its own.”_

_“Hmm...” Was the simple response._

A quiet, respectful and thoughtful demeanor for a quiet (and generally) respectful friend. 

A boisterous, almost fude demeanor for the crude and loud-mouthed friend. An intelligent and decisive mask for the too inquisitive and intelligent friend. 

A mask for each friend. Each one finely polished and tuned to each personality that he came across. He had a different way to handle each person. And each mask was fascinating to study. He himself found taht he couldn’t detect that difference of Kurusu’s Akechi mask from the others. It so similarly mimiced his own styled, taht it had evoked a sense of familiarity. His guard, if only slightly, had been lowered. 

Enough so that even _he_ had missed details. 

It was frustrating... no, infuriating. He... him, the detective. Almost fooled by the delinquent. What a fool (though was he talking about himself... or Kurusu?). 

Masks. Yes, masks. Focus, Akechi. Kurusu has multiple masks. Both in the metaverse and in real life. His ability to wield them was strangely fitting. Yet frightening at his perfection in doing so. Much like a psychopath (and who was to say that he wasn’t a psychopath?), he wielded his masks with a painfully logical precision, the best mask to receive the desired reaction. 

What was it that the shadows always said to him? A shadow from the sea of human souls? If that was true, then each shadow was either a soul... or the shadow of a human soul. And he garnered their support by changing himself to appeal to each one... exactly as he did to each person he came into contact with in the real world. He did have true personas in the way that he himself had Loki and Robin Hood... born of his own heart. He bound fragments of human souls and exploited their powers for himself. 

He himself could cause psychotic breakdowns and possessed two personas. But they reflected the dicotomy of his sanity... and his insanity. Kurusu’s abilities though... were perhaps even more dangerous than his own. 

Really, he was doing the world a favor. Eliminating not only the leader of the Phantom Thieves who forced changes of hearts on the unwilling, but sparing the world and his own teammates from the emotional control of a psychopath who could manipulate anyone seemlessly... except for himself of course. 

He felt the grin spread over his face once he passed Niijima. He stepped into the room and without a thought, show the guard. 

The barrel of the silencer pressed against the monster’s head. 

"Goodbye, Kurusu." 

_Bang._

 

V̵̨̨̧̦͚̖̳͉̦̭͎̞̗̤̖̹̺̪̞̖͂̍̔͗͗̀̽͗̃͋̈́͂́͗͗̕̚͘͠ Ị̷̧̨̰̳̘̩̮̜͕̙͚͈̤̞͚̭͚̠̜̅̍͆̓͛͌̉̔͑͊̊͘̚̚̚͝͝͝͠ C̵̢̡̢͔̮͖̦͖̯̲̘̜̤͉̩͚̱̃̓͛̎͗̿̂̌̐͑̔͒̋̋͊͘͝ͅͅ T̶̡̧̨͖̭̤̯̖̰͉̳̬̖̬͈̦̘̭̰͆͐̉̈́̆̀̎̅̈́̅̂̾͗́̿̒̊̕͘ O̶̢̖̩͇̹͓̙͍̲̜͈̝̺̮̺͍̙̦̱̫͊̔̎̒̋̃̍͑̅̄̓̈̒̔͗͒̕͝ Ȑ̶̢̙̭̱̫̦̞̙̬̼̟͚̻͉̪̠̼̦̭͕̒͊́̊̽̐̂̋̄̅̓̆̍̓̈́̈́̊ Y̴̧̛̰͉̥͍̥̝͈͖̭̞̖̦̲͚̗̹̭͍͌̍̾̓̈̓̀͑͐͆͛̀́̓̂̑͘͘ .̸̘̬̦͔̬̭̝͚̩̲̻̱͉̼̝͓̘͖̍̂̈́̒̆̀̋̄͋̈͛̿̓̏̽̐̚͘ͅ

  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> I have a whole headcannon about how I think the Wildcard works, and how Akira doesn't even use his skills to his full advantage. This story starts to brush on some of that. Persona 5 is the first game of the Shin Megami/Persona series, so if the other games cover more of the theory of Shadows and where they truly come from, I apologize.
> 
> After doing my NG+ run, I found myself utterly hating Akechi (Despite being a massive Akeshu fan) and... this story was the result. At some point soon, I'll actually write something for my fellow Akeshu fans. 
> 
> If you have any requests that you'd like to see, or you'd just like to chat a bit, please shoot me a message at willowsrain on Tumblr, or Sayuri#7035 on Discord. 
> 
> Thanks for reading!


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